With an Elmore Leonard-like rogue's gallery of characters -- including a lesbian army commander (Marlene Longage) and her informant girlfriend (Angelique Mbumb) -- plus a swift, raw and occasionally eccentric approach to violence and sexuality, Munga treats his richly untidy exercise in brazen criminality like an ever-widening pool of spilled immorality in which no one is left unstained.

As gut-punch storytelling, "Viva Riva!" delivers much, not the least of which is the promise of an exciting new filmmaking talent.